I am proud of my team! We finished in second at Provincials (virtually).

He said

No sooner had we landed out of the self quarantine from Emelia’s school than we ended week back in a provincial-wide lockdown that is described as an emergency brake but makes not much sense otherwise. Unsurprisingly we lost hockey and Emelia has lost Cheer. Her team hurriedly coordinated sessions this week ahead of the Saturday lockdown, in order to make their virtual entry for the Nationals competition to submit. But, as of Saturday at 12:00am, her in-person practices are closed for the next four weeks. She was disappointed for sure, and it has been a really challenging first year in this new competitive sport for her. We’re really happy that the vaccine rollout out happens such that next season she is able to get the true, full experience.

With Spring officially in the air and the temps spending more time on the positive side of zero than below I have been able to – most days – get outside for my workout and do the bike rides on the Thames Valley Parkway. It’s been such a blessing to be able to return to these rides regularly. There was a bit of a blip to get the season going as I was having problems with my shifters and brakes, but I was able to get my bike over to my friend Steve to have it serviced and tuned up for the season. He was able to get it all dialled in and I have been loving the daily rips I have been able to get in, outside, in fresh, sunny air. While some mornings have been double-gloved crisp, the last two rides I have managed to only need one pair of gloves to keep my hands warm. It’s been super spirit lifting to have these 45 minutes of wind and breeze in my day!

And with the weather turning nicer, and us officially in April this past week, we’re officially into the last month before we put the trailer back up at Auburn. Obviously, it feels like the camping we will do at the start of the season will have very much the same restrictions we did last year, but it will be nice to have the space to get away to again. It will be a little different this year as well with Danielle having her job, but we are going to squeeze every last second we can out of it this year like we did last. And I am super excited to get back at it and prop my feet up at the fire pit. There are plans for friends to be there camping too this summer and we may even end the summer with a weekend with my cousin Bill and his two daughters that are close to Emelia in age.

Today we got together with the family for Easter gathering on FaceTime and it marked a year from our fist family FaceTime gathering when the pandemic lockdown was all so new and scary. It’s hard and easy to believe – in the same breath – that it has been a year. Our store was closed for months and has opened in many modified versions over the year. Danielle tried to keep the daycare going but in the end decided last fall to close it and moved to life working outside the home. And Emelia switched from competitive gymnastics to competitive cheer all in her last year of grade school no less. There has been a ton of change and adjustment in the last year, and we haven’t necessarily loved it all, either. Especially when it feels like today we’re on the verge of even more stringent measures, that will make it feel like nothing at all has changed. But, even though the vaccine isn’t rolling out near fast enough, it at least is, and we remain hopeful that there will be a lot more progress in the next six months.

She said

The last week has been a bit of craziness to say the least. A week ago it was announced that our region was moving back to red restrictions for our region. What this meant was that Emelia’s cheer team would have to shift gears again and adjust their team training size again to meet the red zone regulations. Within a day or so of this announcement it was rumoured that there was going to be bigger changes but at the provincial level.

Emelia’s cheer gym had to make some changes and make them fast. They had started sending out revised schedules with the instruction that the kids would learn modified routines and start filming for National Championship. Not ideal. Emelia’s mini cohort was the first group to film. It was fast and furious with a fair bit of bumps along the way. Emelia who is a perfectionist by nature was really hard on herself because she couldn’t land a perfect routine. Her coaches were amazing, building her up and bringing the team together and in chatting with her head coach she said she was amazed what the team pulled off and that she did amazing! There was so much scrambling for the gym that had to reschedule all the teams and get the entire gym to assure that every mini cohort team got a chance to film their routines to submit. It was pure craziness and in the end the gym managed to film 27 teams in 30 hours!! Every parent is beyond grateful for what the gym pulled off and that we were able to have a positive end to a crazy season.

In the middle of this Emelia was also able to squeeze in one last personal training session with her coach to work on her level up skills. She has been working off and on for a while on her round-off, back-handspring, back tuck on the gym floor. She has had this combo on the tumble track for a long time but due to injuries last season stopped training for this on the floor. Well we are beyond proud to say she got it on the floor this week! Her coach sent us a video along with a sweet note saying how proud she was of all the hard work Emelia puts in every practice. Emelia was so happy and cannot wait to get back in the gym to show off her new skill and ‘ring the bell’ at cheer!

Another fun event for Emelia in cheer world also happened this weekend. Because of all the covid restrictions the Ontario Championship this years was another virtual competition. This was the competition that Emelia wasn’t able to participate in because of her covid exposure. This weekend the competition was aired online, it was fun to see other cheer gyms and how they have adapted to covid to put a routine together. In the end Emelia’s team did well and placed second in their division. We are so proud of her whole team!

This was the end of her official season for training but hoping that the kids can back to the gym once we are out of lockdown so they can have fun and keep working on their level up skills, I know Emelia is already counting down to getting back to what she loves.